With one set of public domain heroes already settling in comfortably at Once Upon a Time, ABC is ready to give a pair of classic American characters a modern update. The network has announced that it is developing Finn & Sawyer, a detective TV series about Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn set in a steampunk version of New Orleans.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Jason Richman and David Zabel (who produced ABC's Detroit 1-8-7) are developing the Finn & Sawyer pilot for ABC, which will revolve around the two troublemakers who meet again as 20-somethings and open up an investigation firm in retrofuturistic New Orleans.

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As gimmicky as "steampunk Huck and Tom" sounds, the characters actually may be quite well suited for steampunk. Twain's novel Tom Sawyer Abroad was a play on Jules Verne-style adventure stories, and featured a mad professor and his absurd, futuristic airship. And Tom Sawyer had his own mystery story with Tom Sawyer, Detective. However, Twain was poking fun at the conventions of these genres, not merely using them as vehicles for his characters. If the pilot progresses, we'll have to see if the creators use Huck and Tom to their full satirical effect.